As they celebrate 75 years of education, Pratt Community College looks to the future as they work on the selection of a new president following the retirement of current President William Wojciechowski.

As part of that selection process, the college is reaching out to the community for input into the type of person that will lead the college into the future.

The first step in selection process is to form a presidential search committee, said Eric Webb, presidential search committee clerk.

That committee will be made up of PCC Board of Trustees members, some PCC faculty and staff as well as some community members.

The next step in the process is the Trustees drafting a want ad for the position and then bouncing that ad off the college and community for input.

To help determine the attributes for the next president, the college will hold an open community forum from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12 in Carpenter Auditorium on the PCC campus, Webb said.

The community is encouraged to attend the forum for an open discussion on presidential attributes.

During the first month of the search process and using the information gathered at the forum, a presidential profile will be established defining experience, education, attributes both personal and professional and specific job experience.

Once those parameters have been established, the next month of the search will be spent searching for candidates. For that specific purpose, the college has retained a consultant from National Search and Educational Consulting.

That consultant will recruit candidates for possible interviews.

This same group helped Labette Community College and Johnson County Community College find presidents, Webb said.

The soft cutoff date for candidate's applications is Tuesday, April 23. Once the applications have arrived, the consultant will evaluate the candidates and select the ones to go through the interview process. The search committee will be part of that interview process Webb said.

Candidates will go through distance interviews using Skype as a communication tool. The distance interviews should be completed in early May.

A select few candidates will be brought to the campus for in person interviews in early June with the selection of a new president in early to mid July, Webb said.

Although Wojciechowski's retirement is effective on June 30, he will remain to help with the transition to the new president.